How to Pressure Cook Frozen Meat

We’ve all got a frozen block of meat tucked away for a rainy day dinner- and that happens at the last minute with no time for defrosting. Here’s how to use your pressure cooker’s high-heat prowess to get an edible meal out of a meat icicle.

Whether you can use frozen meat in a recipe really depends on the kind of recipe it is – some cooking methods, even in the pressure cooker, are not appropriate for cooking frozen meats.

Here’s what works, what doesn’t and how to do it.

Tips for Pressure Cooking Frozen Meat

DO brown what you can – Your frozen hunk of meat will likely be uneven and impossible to straighten-out. Just toss it in the cooker with some oil and brown whatever parts of the hunk come in contact with the base – even that little bit of browning will add tons of extra flavor to the dish.

Don’t steam or braise frozen meat – Save steaming or braising pressure cooker recipes for defrosted meat (overnight in the fridge ought to do it). That’s because steaming frozen meat will give you a lovely cooked outer coating with a frozen solid inner core. Braising, similarly, only cooks the part of the meat submerged in cooking liquid really well while the rest of the meat will be disappointingly under-done.

DO boil frozen meat– Boiling frozen meat under pressure allows the heat from the cooking liquid to penetrate the meat more evenly, quickly and deeply than other pressure cooking methods. Make sure to cover frozen meat completely with liquid.

Don’t worry if the cooker takes longer to reach pressure – That hunk of frozen meat is a giant ice cube that will slow down the heat-up of the cooking liquid. So the liquid will take longer to reach a boil, and eventually build pressure. Depending on how much meat you’ve stuffed in the pressure cooker, it could take up to twice as long to reach pressure (20-40 minutes – no kidding). Keep an eye on electric pressure cookers which may time-out during this longer heat-up phase and need to be restarted.

DO play around with the cooking liquids and spices to get different flavor profiles – Here are some ideas for cooking liquids: water, stock, wine, unsweetened fruit juices, left-over bean or steaming cooking liquid. Toss in a few aromatic veggies like garlic, onions, carrots, celery or leeks. Flavor with decisive spices or herbs like: cumin, coriander or curry powder; soy, fish or tabasco sauces; rosemary, laurel or juniper berries.

Don’t forget to add salt! If none of your cooking liquids are already salty toss in about 2 teaspoons of salt, too. You can always add more when the dish is finished pressure cooking- adjust to your flavor and health needs.

DO increase the cooking time according to thickness – Increase the cooking time 50% or more depending on the thickness of the block of meat. For example, ground meat usually needs 5 minutes pressure cooking time but if it’s in a single solid block that is at least 1-inch (2.5cm) thick then you’ll want to double the cooking time to 10 minutes. Frozen chicken legs, or pieces, which are in a single layer, only need 50% more of the recommended cooking time – so pressure cook them for 15 minutes instead of the recommended 10. Don’t worry, we have some recommended cooking time for frozen cuts in the meat cooking time chart.

Don’t pressure cook frozen roasts or meatloafs – Roasts are pretty thick pieces of meat which will need a looong pressure cooking time. This means that the outside will be fall-apart over-cooked while the center will be barely cooked – even if you boil it. So when it comes out of the cooker it won’t even look like a roast, or loaf, anymore.

DO take the meat’s temperature after cooking – I recommend taking the temperature at the center of the meat – just to be safe – to ensure that the super-heated liquid was able to transmit heat into meat all the way to the core (see target temperatures, below).

Basic Procedure for Pressure Cooking Frozen Meat

Add block of frozen meat into the pressure cooker – chip it to fit if necessary.

38 Responses

An electric knife with the “frozen” cutting blades could come in handy for cutting frozen meat. If you have an electric knife forgotten about in the back of a cupboard or drawer, look for the set of blades with the wider serrations, if you have them.

As for the salt, 2 teaspoons sounds like a LOT of salt to me. In a stainless steel pressure cooker, the salt would need to be added to hot liquid to avoid corrosion of the steel.

I calculated the salt assuming one would use minimum 4 cups (1L) liquid to cover the meat – a lot of that salt will stay in the liquid and not enter the meat. However, one can always adjust the salt content to taste and health needs. ; )

Pork chops with cabbage and potatoes is a life saver, I freeze my pork chops individually so can use what I need, I can also brown them easily while frozen. Think this recipe would also work with frozen sausage, have some locally made Swiss Smokes that I am going to try.

I also freeze ground meat pressed flat so it can be broken up into pieces while still frozen, only adds about 5 minutes to the cooking times.

I agree with you about his recommended cooking times. It’s a moot point for me since I don’t use his recipes. Most of his recipes are basically pressure cooked fast food–otherwise known as the “standard American diet.”

I’m brand new… Just got my pot a couple of months ago. Using his book has taught me not only his recipes, but the underlying ways that the pot actually works. If that makes any sense. Just gathering up as much info in as many places as I can. Including here. :)

Thank you thank you thank you for your meat chart. I will refer to it for every recipe I cook with meat. I was beginning to get disheartened with recipes and their cook times until I found this! Great site.

Please understand that I’m not trying to sound sarcastic, complain or argue, but this is a real question for me. What benefit do you get with pressure cooking frozen meat by boiling it in the pressure cooker, rather than on the stove top? I’m trying to understand this. I’m very new to pressure cooking and so I’m trying to understand how this works.

I found your page because I was looking specifically for a frozen drumstick pressure cooker recipe but after reading what you had to say, I then feel like I could just boil it on the stove with the same flavors and vegetables and get the same result. Am I wrong on this?

Oh and I disagree with Ms. Burns. I don’t see why you’re not allowed to voice your opinion, competition or not. Isn’t that entirely the point of competition? To explain why yours is better? *sigh* The world becomes scary when we’re not allowed to speak anymore.

To be honest, I’ve never boiled something from frozen – I used to just wait a day while it defrosted in the fridge and make something else- so I cannot compare the differences between pressure cooking and boiling from frozen.

The argument for using the pressure cooker, in this case, is probably not different from the choice you would make for a fresh piece of meat: less time and more flavor. And, at least for me, it’s the difference between waiting a day or having it for dinner tonight.

Curiosity, requests for clarification, critique and corrections are very welcome here so I’m glad you joined the conversation. In my experience people get defensive when they already think they know everything – I still have lots to learn! ; )

I have also just received my cooker as well. I’m used to cooking a frozen roast in a crock pot all day and coming home to a tender piece of meat and some gravy, but have heard others say, including my mom, that I should thaw first. I was assuming that with the new pressure cooker pot that I could do something similar with the meat, but just in a shorter amount of time. Am I wrong?

It is not recommended that you cook a roast direct from frozen. No matter what the method.

Essentially, bacteria and other nasties thrive in an environment between about 5ºC and 50ºC (120ºF).

When you cook direct from frozen, the cold interior counteracts the warm to hot exterior resulting in the food remaining in the danger zone for longer. This results in more pathogens growing meaning that the food is less than safe.

In addition, a pressure cooker cooks the exterior of the food very quickly, with the result that the outer edges can be overcooked while the interior is still raw or even frozen.

The exception to this is cooking in a water bath. This can be boiled, pressure cooking the food while fully submerged (this is effectively high temperature boiling), or sous vide. This is because heat is transferred from water to food much more effectively than from air to food. This keeps the danger zone small and short. However, boiling is no way to prepare a roast.

I have read that poultry should NEVER be cooked from frozen, even in a pressure cooker. I don’t know exactly why. Talking of poultry, washing raw chicken before cooking will splash and spread campylobacter bacteria in the surrounding areas. I can see why it’s very dangerous to rinse raw chicken before cooking:

Well, that’s a Williams-Sonoma recipe for disaster – there is a small window when you can remove the giblets and between the family and guests I foresee that many people will forget to do that. They also mention that if you forget, and cook the turkey with the bag of giblets, you have to throw the turkey away. No thanks!

I’m pretty sure that the frozen stuffed turkey is actually pre-cooked so you only have to defrost and brown it in the oven.

Haha. See why the giblet thing would annoy some.
Some recipes warn you of to take out the giblets. But if you don’t nothing bad happens. Many people have forgotten to remove giblets before cooking. I have even seen someone stuff a bird with the giblets still inside.

Welcome Joyce.
I cannot say I have seen any fighting here. And I have been frequenting this site and its sister forum for several years now. I have seen lively discussion. And it always interesting. And often a learning experience. I have at times changed my mind on a topic because of the discussion. At other times I have changed other’s views. Sometimes we have agreed to disagree. In all cases I have had my narrow mindset expanded. And that to my mind, that is a good thing. Whether it is cooking or one of life’s big questions.

If it bothers you, by all means ignore the discussion. If it really bothers you, there are plenty of other sites out there that encourage, if not enforce, uniformity of opinion.

Remember. The truth is out there. But sometimes there is more than one aspect to it.

I was looking for a frozen beef roast temp and time for my IP and came across this thread. I chopped up the roast and browned the sides and put a cup of broth and seasonings in there, set it on high for 3 hours. Think that’s going to do it??

People have said, when cooking frozen meat, the fact that it takes longer to come to pressure, compensates for the cooking time…i.e they say not to worry about adding extra time – because it takes longer to come to pressure and is defrosted by the time it starts to cook. I cant fathom this – surely it still takes longer to cook, regardless of the coming to pressure time…??

Don’t forget the cooking starts when you first apply heat. Cooking time is not just the “at pressure” time. It also includes the warm up and cool down periods. Though personally, I will never cook meat from frozen.

i think their thinking is that the water won’t boil while there is an icecube floating in it. Therefore pressure won’t build.

i disagree. I have seen icecubes floating in boiling water. They didn’t last long, but they were there. They weren’t very big either. A big lump of frozen meat would be something else again. The defrosted outer layer will insulate the icecube in the middle.

As I said: I never cook meat from frozen.
Actually not quite true. I sous vide direct from frozen all the time. I add an extra 30 minutes for steak, and an hour for a roulade. My thinking here is that the constant temperature waterbath will force the meat to go through the danger zone much quicker than defrosting any other way.
But I will never PC from frozen.

That logic probably works if you’re only pressure cooking ground meat. But the thicker the meat the longer it will take for the heat to travel to the middle and cook it. That’s why I have recommended “additional” cooking times for each cut of meat in the meat cooking chart. The additional time to pressure does shorten this additional time, but it doesn’t magically negate it – especially for thicker cuts!

Also, don’t forget to take the internal temperature before serving as well!!!

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